Ulrik Wivel's short movie "Jeg Dig Elsker" (I You Love) premieres in the cinema this week:

From the 11th of November, for the next two weeks you can go to the cinema and enjoy ballet! Ulrik Wivel's short film on Bournonville and La Sylphide, "Jeg Dig Elsker" is playing every day at 5pm at the Empire Cinema in Nørrebro.

2006 Dance on Camera Festival
Walter Reade Theatre, Lincoln Center
New York New York

Program 11 - January 10, 2006: 1pm

This program includes "Jeg Dig Elsker", a movie from Norway and a long awaited fillm about the NYCB performancee in St. Petersburg in 2003.

Tickets:

"DFA members/entrants $6; $10 for non-members tickets are sold at the box office on Lincoln Center Plaza, on-line: filmlinc.com and by calling: (212) 496-3809. Only Visa and Master card are accepted. This number only allows you to buy tickets for the coming weekend."

With the US premiere scheduled for next month, I will start posting my thoughts about the short film. My impressions are based largely upon the visuals, as my ability to understand spoken Danish is limited.

"Jeg Dig Elsker" is a brief, but powerful 24 minutes, providing a glimpse into the rehearsals prior to the re-premiere of Nikolaj Hubbe's new staging of "La Sylphide" (Syldifen in Danish). The film ties scenes from rehearsal and performance, togther with glimpses of Hubbe in (a hotel room?) slowly, thoughtfully putting on his tuxedo, presumabley for the premiere night.

In rehearsal, we see two of the Royal Danish Ballet's premiere Bournonville dancers - Mads Blangstrup as James and Gudrun Bojeson as The Sylph. (Knowledgable eyes will spot Caroline Cavallo in the performance scenes - a matter of practicality since Blangstrup and Bojeson are not normally cast opposite each other in "La Sylphide".) Lis Jeppesen, a former Sylph herself, is the mysterious Madge.

The rehearsals themselves take place in Ny Store, a rehearsal studio nestled up in the far-reaches of the Royal Theatre complex. With it's raised stage and soaring views of Copenhagen, it is a perfect blank canvas for the dancers to transform into a Scottish forest.

It is these rehearsal scenes that are the most striking and moving. In rehearsal, where the mime and dance are stripped of sets, costumes and makeup, we get to see Bournonville at it's purest. And so 'naked', the ballet loses none of it's emotional power - a testament not only to the talent of Blangstrup and Bojeson, but to Hubbe's direction and the enduring Bournonville tradition in the Royal Danish Ballet.

This fusion of dance, mime and emotion is rarely, if ever, seen outside the Royal Danish Ballet and one of Wivel's triumphs in this film is his success in showing the power and uniqueness of this tradition.

But the film is not just about "La Sylphide", it is also the story of Hubbe's "return" to the Royal Theatre. In the interludes of Hubbe's final preparations we see a thoughtfulness, with perhaps some signs of apprenhesion. For the staging of "La Sylphide" was Hubbe's first long-term involvment with the company after having been turned down as a candidate for the artistic directorship of the company. One can only imagine that it was not quite how Hubbe had hoped to return to the Royal Theatre, and a reason for desiring to be well-received in his new staging.

Copenhagen audiences are generous with applause, but taking on the most well known and treasured ballet by the 'father' of Danish ballet is no easy task. Perhaps because of this honored place that Bournonville and 'La Sylphide' reside in Danish ballet history, the pressure is not so much to please the audience, but to honor tradition, history and those who have come before. For Hubbe, like almost every Danish dancer on the stage, danced in previous productions as a child and a company member. So staging a new version is almost a test of what one has absorbed and learned before and a demonstration of how one perceives and views the Bournonville tradition....

A most unusual film was released recently about New York City Ballet's return to Russia 20 years after the death of Balanchine. For those of you who may have seen the Ballet Russe film, this beautiful new documentary picks up in many ways where that film left off.

The Film Society of Lincoln Center will present three screenings of Bringing Balanchine Back this coming Sunday, May 14, at 4 pm, 6:15 pm and 8:30 pm.

The film is narrated by Kevin Kline, and it chronicles New York City Ballet's summer 2003 tour to St. Petersburg, Russia, for the city's 300th anniversary. Filmed throughout this legendary city and within the historic Maryinsky Theater, it also features substantial performance excerpts of a number of ballets, some never before seen on film or television, including George Balanchine's Symphony in Three Movements, Symphony in C, Western Symphony, Serenade, Jerome Robbins' Glass Pieces, and Peter Martins' Hallelujah Junction. It also includes original interviews with stars of the ballet and music world, including Peter Martins, Valery Gergiev, Darci Kistler, Wendy Whelan and former principal dancer, Jock Soto.

This is a rare and sometimes emotional film experience, which includes special moments and personal revelations that this visit held for the dancers of New York City Ballet and for the Russian public that hosted them.

Bringing Balanchine Back will be immediately followed by I Love You/Jeg Dig Elkser. Here again NYCB Principal Dancer Nikolaj Hübbe collaborates with fellow Dane Ulrik Wivel to bring fresh insights to the mime and dramatic significance of Bournonville's 19th century ballet classic La Sylphide, as Hübbe works with dancers from the Royal Danish Ballet.

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